Interculturalism, Gender Culture, and Familiar Faces

Now that I'm sitting down to blog, I realize just how full my weeks have been. I'm a lucky girl!

When using your phone as a mirror turns into taking a selfie..

On Wednesday (Oct 19th), my London Crucible class went on a visit to Camden Market to revisit the idea of interculturalism, the integration of many different cultures, with the main objective to find examples of culture appropriation. To be honest, I kind of forgot to take pictures of this and instead got distracted by all of the stuff for sale...and the possible Christmas gift potential of said stuff ;)

It's a very overwhelmingly large market! 

The class as a whole did discuss how lots of religious garments are often for sale as fashion pieces (like hijabs, for example), some vendors were selling jewelry with a variety of different religious symbols, and how these items are often inaccurate and can be offensive. 

Then we walked along Regent's Canal on the way back:

Me, Hannah, Claire

"She thought the view was beautiful but I thought she was beautiful":

 Haha, that's for you, Claire!


On the way back, a random guy was unloading packages from the back of a truck when he suddenly handed one to Zoe and asked if she could hold it for a second. Then he asked Melanie to hold one. My first thought was that we were going to be kidnapped. He tried to ask Marisa and Anna but they purposefully kept their distance. Scared, Mel asked why he couldn't place the packages on the ground. He said, "You have to hold them gently because if I put them on the ground they 'go boom'!" Mel practically pushed the package back into the guys hand "Please take your package back." Then he started laughing...apparently it is a past time of his to play bomb pranks. Not a funny prank though.

I did happen to catch it on video (of course...Leah doesn't run for her life, instead she takes a video):

I guess you can say we are immersing ourselves in city culture... :0

On Thursday, the topic for sociology was Gender. We were sent out to Oxford Street to look for examples of many different things including an example of retailers appealing to gender,  I noticed this example...just from the font of the logos of the two stores. One's feminine and one's masculine:

Always about the graphic design! :)

And then the best part of my week. I had dinner with these two strangers!!

I planned to meet them after class at Holborn Station. I could see them from across the cross-walk but they had their backs to me. I kept calling to them as I was walking, hardly containing my excitement.

 Grandma got this picture of me as I was walking across the intersection:

I think it is safe to say I was excited!

Grandpa and I in deep thought at the Pancake House:

Unfortunately I couldn't spend the rest of the evening with them because I had to head back to Student Central for a seminar on gender gap issues...But Arcadia paid for our drinks at the bar downstairs so that was a plus:

Coming soon: A special weekend with my grandparents!